With a mission of closing the pay gap, HUMA curates, personalizes and streamlines the mentor finding experience while providing a platform for anonymous, unfiltered conversations about compensation, work place issues and other professional career topics.

Year

2022

School

BrainStation

Project Type

Branding, UX, UI, Product Design

Role

Product Designer

Overview

A place for networking and finding mentors

Problem

BIPOC millennial tech workers often feel alone throughout their career journeys and have no one to turn to when it comes to career related topics. While there are apps that solve some of these issues, none successfully provide users with all the features they need to progress in their careers specifically in the technology industry.

Solution

HUMA integrates and improves upon the most used features of competing products to solve user pain points. Simplifying the process of connecting with mentors and other professionals within the technology industry, providing resources about compensation and protecting them using anonymity.

View Final Solution
My Role/Responsibilities

UX research, UI design, brand identity

Timeline

12 weeks

Tools

Figma, Invision

Process

Discover

How might we better inform people of colour in the technology industry and give them the tools necessary to advocate for themselves?

By developing a digital solution to allow people of colour access to pay transparency and information about the technology industry as well as easy access to mentorship will help them progress in their careers, not fall victim to pay inequality and will help them better advocate for themselves.

To prove this hypothesis and explore the problem space, initial research focused on better understanding BIPOC experiences navigating their careers and how to better support them.

Focus Areas
01

What products exist to help navigate the technology industry?

02

What resources are available? How does one make career decisions?

03

What are users current pain points within their career journey?

04

How do millenials feel about pay transparency?

Secondary Research

People of colour face the greatest pay gap in tech.

Not only is it difficult to break into the technology industry but when minorities are hired, they are making less than their white male counterparts for the same job.

User Interviews

A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with 5 individuals of multiple different races, and seniority levels in the tech industry to further identify pain points, frustrations, needs, and desires.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1. What has been the most difficult part about navigating your professional career?

2. Tell me about any mentorship you have and how you built those relationships?

3. What is your process for determining whether you’re being paid fairly or not?

4. How do you navigate progressing in your career?

Key Takeaways
01

Users felt they didn't have a network to go to for career advice and wished they had a mentor.

02

Users feel that there aren't enough resources available to them to help them progress in their careers

03

Users felt that finding a mentor was difficult

Competitive & Comparative Analysis

Competitive analysis was conducted to identify competitor's strengths and weaknesses to inform my digital solution's features and information structure.

The closest competition being BLIND still misses the aspect of finding mentorship and networking events.

Define

Carving out a niche

After conducting user interviews, all the participants responses were synthesized to identity themes, opportunities, and features that HUMA could focus and improve upon.

Affinity Map

An affinity map was created to identify high level themes and group similar insights gained from the user interviews.

Affinity Map Details
Interview Synthesis

The interview insights were synthesized into pain points, motivations and behaviours and lastly into themes which guided the digital solution.

Persona

A persona was built based on the data collected to help drive decision making and keep the product focused on solving users pain points, frustrations, and goals.

IMPROVED HOW MIGHT WE + PIVOT

How might we better connect people of colour in the technology industry to a network of mentors in order to better navigate and advance their careers?

It was evident that that the biggest issue was that young professionals don't often have mentors and want a network of people to go to for career advice.

But how does mentorship and the pay gap relate?

  • By creating a place where mentorship is easily accessible, pay can be a topic of discussion and encouraged.  
  • A mentor can also be utilized for career advice, negotiation tactics and in turn help the BIPOC community not fall victim to pay inequality. 

Ideate

Creating the connections

To kick-off the design process, a user flow, experience map and quick sketches helped me get ideas on paper to establish which elements were necessary for each screen. A low fidelity prototype was then created for initial user testing.

User Flow + Experience Map

The primary user flow is the process of onboarding and getting a curated list of mentors. With the persona in mind, and knowing I had to ask sensitive questions such as race and compensation, I built a task flow that would allow me to get insight into communication issues and how to best ask these sensitive questions.

The experience map is important as it highlights areas where the digital solution can be impactful.

Sketches

Rough sketches were done to get my initial thoughts on paper and brainstorm new ideas for specific UI elements.

UI Inspiration and Moodboard
Usability Study + Major Design Improvements

A usability study was conducted to determine where improvements could be made and identify new ideas to satisfy user expectations, needs, and desires.

Two rounds of user testing were done, 5 individuals using the first iteration and another 5 individuals using the second iteration.

Based on feedback from 10 peers and mentor feedback I continually iterated my design over the span of 4 weeks.

re-organized questionaire and improved communication
  • The biggest questions from users during testing sessions were:

    1. What information is anonymous?
    2. Why am I being asked about my race and compensation?

    Based on this, the following changes were made:
  • Re-organized questions based on what's anonymous and what is not.
  • Made it more clear what information is anonymous vs public
  • Updating the communication and adding a card to further explain why certain questions are being asked.
USER FLOW
  • Originally designed with the ability to message users and be dropped into the application.
  • Removed the ability to go back to the questionnaire after entering the application as well as the ability to message other users until the questionnaire is complete.
  • Based on mentor feedback the user was now given 3 options when it came to the list of people in their network in order to not overwhelm them.
  • It was important to ask myself "how likely is it that users would be ready to message someone as soon as they land into the application?" 
  • Added a CTA to make it clear that the questionnaire is complete
  • Added public information for the suggested mentors such as total compensation similar to what the user was asked in the onboarding task

Design

A focus on simplicity

Inspiration was drawn from numerous applications that use a darker theme with a focus on minimal yet functional simplicity. The UI design reflects the user's desire for a simplistic, intuitive and professional feel.

Brand Development
Logos
Typography & Color

Solution

A highly curated experience

HUMA makes the process of finding a mentor and a network simple and engaging. It connects people to a social network of fellow technology industry professionals and only suggests people that match the user's preferences and interests.

Prototype

Watch the prototype walkthrough or walkthrough it yourself.

View Prototype
Sign In

The introduction of the app quickly explains what the application is for and how it will benefit the user.

Onboarding

Users are able to easily fill out the questionnaire along with their preferences. They are also able to click "learn more" to better understand why certain questions are being asked.

Messaging

After users review their list of potential mentors, they are able to message other users and navigate to the chat screen.

Problems Solved
01

Simplifies the experience of finding a mentor

02

Suggests personalized mentors specific to the users interests and background

03

Supports social connection and engagement

04

Encourages open dialogue about compensation and career related topics

05

Gives the user flexibility to connect with multiple users in their network

06

Provides a source of reputable reviews and advice professionals

Key learnings and Next steps

If I had more time...

NEXT STEPS

  • Create additional task flows such as commenting on other users posts.
  • Enhancing the onboarding process by determining whether the user is using the application as a mentor or mentee to further personalize their experience.
  • Add a timeline feature for curated content based on a users career goals/mentorship needs/interests.
  • Add a resources page for networking events or information relating to the tech industry.
  • Improve upon and better adhere to WCAG standards.

REFLECTION

  • Working through this project taught me the importance of designing with intentionality and with your user in mind.
  • This project taught me to get feedback early and often
  • I also want to thank all my peers, mentors and educators as they have all touched upon and influenced a piece of this project.

Looking Ahead

The future of HUMA

The Marketing Site

The purpose of this site is to give users the chance to evaluate HUMA before deciding to download. It is meant to explain benefits and features of HUMA.

Desktop PrototypeMobile Prototype

Looking Ahead

Alternative Platform Challenge

The Alternative Platform

Based on the persona, Atina Raya, her goals, interests and other forms of technology used, it was evident that if HUMA expanded to another platform, it should be a desktop web application.

Showcased below, I created a desktop web application, easily accessible to users across platforms.

Digging Deeper

Tarot Cards of Tech

Our most passionate users would communicate with kindness, trying to be as helpful as possible, give referrals and are open to advice. Huma relies on this type of engagement to create a safe space online for tech professionals.

The application is meant to allow users to talk openly and honestly about the industry without the fear of reprisal, and therefore, I wouldn't want users to try to expose people or conversations to become negative in a sense that users are verbally attacking one another.

In these cases, I think that there might be room to discuss a way to send reports through the application and/or block users to mitigate any negative behaviour.

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